The Love Experiment
by Fae'sFlower
Summary: When Fiyero and Elphaba are forced to do a science project together, only chaos can ensue. But it might be able to bring them closer together. Shiz-Era. Fiyeraba. Oneshot.


**Hello, all. I felt the need for another oneshot. Thanks to FaeThropp-Tiggular for showing me the video for this prompt.**

* * *

Elphaba groaned when she saw the list of partners for the upcoming science project. Out of all the people, she had to be pared with Fiyero Tigulaar. She hated him. He was lazy, rude, obnoxious… and currently walking up to her. She stiffened as he approached and stood next to her.

"Looks like we're partners," he said as he scanned the list, giving the green girl a look she couldn't quite identify.

"Unfortunately," Elphaba muttered.

The prince pretended not to hear her.

"We start tomorrow," Elphaba said sternly. "This is a very big part of our grades and I refuse to fail simply because you're lazy."

Fiyero opened his mouth to retort, but Elphaba was already halfway down the hall. "I'll show her," he muttered under his breath.

Needless to say, Galinda was very upset when she saw that she was not partnered with her boyfriend.

"Glin, it's just a science project," Elphaba has said to the pouting blonde in their dorm room.

"But _I_ wanted to work with him," Galinda pouted.

"The only reason Fiyero and I are working together is because our names are next to each other in alphabetical order."

Galinda looked up. "Do you want to work with him?"

"I'm willing to do whatever it takes in order to get a good grade, even if it means working with the brainless oaf."

"Elphie, Fifi is _not_ a brainless oaf!" Galinda chided, lightly smacking her roommate's arm. "He's just…"

"Lazy?"

The blonde gave her roommate a look. "More relaxed than most people I know."

"Lazy," Elphaba translated.

Galinda sighed and flopped down on her bed. "I'm stuck working with Lot. Now _he's_ lazy!"

Elphaba couldn't argue with that. Lot was the one person she deemed lazier than Fiyero. "But at last he knows the material. I can't say the same about Fiyero."

"Well… maybe if the class wasn't so boring…"

"Maybe if people would just pay attention…"

The blonde pouted. "You're not helping, Elphie!" Huffing, she stood up and walked out.

The green girl chuckled softly and shook her head before getting out her science books and started working on the project. After all, someone had to.

* * *

"You're late," Elphaba said when she heard the door to the lab she had reserved for the project open.

"I'm not late," the prince protested.

The green girl looked up from her notes and frowned at the clock. "I said be here at three. It is now three-oh-two."

The prince rolled his eyes. "It's only one minute."

Elphaba glared at the prince, then turned back to her notes. "Whatever. You're still late."

The prince rolled his eyes. "So, what's our project on?"

"We're doing chemical reactions. We need to come up with a solution that, when mixed together, will create the desired reaction."

"And what is the desired reaction?"

Elphaba didn't answer as she quickly got out the materials. The prince's shoulders slumped and he sighed, sitting on one of the stools by one of the lab table.

"What are you doing?" Elphaba asked, frowning.

"I don't know what you want me to do," Fiyero grumbled.

"Didn't you read the assignment?"

"I… no."

"Then you can start by doing that. The last thing I want is for you to mix something and end up blowing this whole place up."

Fiyero was about to say something, but wisely held his tongue and took out the paper with the assignment on it. "It says we have create a chemical reaction that would be safe to do in an elementary school. Sounds simple enough."

"No, it's not. If you knew anything about chemical reactions, you would know that a lot of them are dangerous. We can't just start mixing- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" The green girl jumped up and grabbed a vile of blue liquid from the prince. "What is this?"

"How should I know? You laid it out," Fiyero said.

Elphaba huffed and carefully set the vile down. "Just… don't touch anything."

"Fine," Fiyero said as he crossed his arms and sat on one of the stools.

Elphaba rolled her eyes and turned back to her notes. She muttered something under her breath, and Fiyero was about to ask what she had said before she turned and grabbed a flask.

"What's in there?" he asked, slowly stepping over to her.

"Hydrogen peroxide," the green girl answered shortly, beginning to tune the prince out.

"Does that count as 'safe for an elementary school'?"

"Is it if the teacher pours it."

The prince nodded and watched as Elphaba worked. He wanted to help her, but he was sure that he would just laugh in his face. He saw a small bottle of what looked like red food coloring on the desk. He picked it up, thinking that the experiment would be more interesting. Kids like things that were colorful, right? He looked up and saw that Elphaba's back was still turned and poured the liquid into the flask.

"What's that's smell?" Elphaba asked, finally turning around, her eyes widening at the sight of the prince. "Fiyero, what in Oz's name did you do!?"

"I just added food coloring!" the prince defended himself.

"That's not food coloring, you brainless idiot!" Elphaba said as she stomped over to him and grabbed the small bottle. "It's methyl!"

"But why is that so bad?"

Elphaba grunted in frustration. The liquid began to bubble, but she didn't seem to notice, as she was giving the prince a rant about how stupid he was. "You can't mix hydrogen peroxide with an acid! Or else it will…"

The acid made a hissing sound and Fiyero pushed Elphaba to the ground just as the flask exploded. He covered her as the acidic solution spilled out of the flask and onto the floor around them. Once everything seemed to calm down, the prince looked up slightly and met Elphaba's gaze.

 _Had she always had such deep, chocolate eyes?_ he wondered to himself as he stared into her eyes. He had never noticed them before, since they were always hidden behind her thin-rimmed glasses.

"Are you okay?" Fiyero asked at the same time Elphaba said, "Get off me, Tigulaar."

The prince fought a blush as he quickly got off the green girl and offered his hand to her. Elphaba ignored the gesture and pushed herself to her feet, wiping the dust off her skirt.

"Are you okay?" he repeated.

Elphaba grunted and moved to get a mop to clean up the spill. Fiyero watched her in silence as dug through the closet and pulled out the mop. "I'm sorry."

The green girl didn't say anything as she cleaned up the spill. Once it was all gone, she put the broom back and went to get a new flask and start the lab all over again.

"Elphaba?"

Silence.

"Elphaba."

"What?" Elphaba snapped.

"I really am sorry. I just wanted to help."

"Well, you did help… help to make it worse."

The prince was about to retort, but something stopped him. "I… I just wanted to prove that I'm not as stupid as most people think I am."

Elphaba sighed.

"You think I'm stupid, don't you?"

The green girl paused in the experiment. "No."

The prince smiled.

"Not _really_ stupid."

The smile faded as quickly as it appeared. Frowning, Fiyero walked over to his bag and began to pack up his things.

"What are you doing?" Elphaba asked, though not as harshly as before.

"What do you care?" Fiyero said as he slung his bag over his shoulder. "I'm just the stupid prince. You can do this project by yourself, which I know you wanted to do in the first place."

He walked out of the room and slammed the door behind him. Elphaba winced slightly, then hurried out after the prince. "Fiyero, wait!" She saw him hurry down the hall, speeding up when he heard her voice. "Fiyero!" Elphaba finally caught up with him and grabbed his hand.

The prince stared at their joint hands and met the green girl's gaze. "What?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I know you were trying to help. You're not as brainless as you pretend to be."

"I happen to be very brainless, thank you very much," Fiyero said, though he realized that it sounded more brainless out loud than it did in his head.

Elphaba shook her head. "No, you're not. You pretend that you are, but you're really smart. You do stupid things, but you're actually really smart."

Fiyero blinked. Elphaba sounded sincere. He couldn't recall Elphaba ever sounding sincere when speaking to him or any of her other classmates.

"So… do you want to come back and finish the project?" the green girl asked.

Fiyero considered his options. He really didn't want to fail the course. And he did have a bit of a love for science. So he agreed and followed Elphaba back to the lab. He watched as Elphaba poured the hydrogen peroxide into the flask. She then handed Fiyero a bottle of a red liquid. He eyed it suspiciously and looked at the green girl.

"Don't worry," Elphaba said. "It's red food coloring."

"Are you sure?"

The green girl laughed softly. "Yes, Fiyero. I'm sure."

Fiyero took the food coloring and added it to the solution, while Elphaba got a bottle of dish soap to give it the desired effect.

"Ready?" Elphaba asked as she held the small bottle of their last ingredient, the potassium iodide

The prince nodded.

Elphaba was about to pour the catalyst in when she stopped. "Fiyero?"

"Yes?"

"Do you want to do it?"

Fiyero blinked. "Are you sure?"

Elphaba nodded and handed him the small bottle. The Vinkun took it carefully and, counting to three in his head, dumped it into the flask. The chemical reaction happened quickly and foam bubbles shot up through the flask.

"We did it!" Elphaba laughed.

"We did," Fiyero smiled, proud of their success. He took a handful of foam bubbles and threw them at Elphaba. The green girl gasped in surprise and look at the prince. Fiyero was sure she was mad at him until she took a handful of the foam bubbles and threw it at him. Their little game lasted a few minutes before Elphaba decided that it was time for them to clean up.

"That went well," Fiyero said as he watched Elphaba record the last of their notes.

"It did," the green girl agreed.

Fiyero nodded and stood awkwardly behind the green girl, looking like he wanted to say something else, but something was stopping him.

"Yes, Fiyero?" Elphaba finally said.

"Oh," the prince blinked. "Um… I'm… really glad we did this project together and… and that we're friends."

Elphaba froze. "F-Friends?"

"You don't want to be friends?"

"No, it's not that. It's just…" Elphaba licked her lips. "I've never really had friends before."

"You're friends with Galinda."

"And I have no idea how _that_ happened. We're complete opposites. And she's currently the only friend I have. I'm still trying to figure out how this 'friendship' thing works."

"Well, are you willing to add another friends to your growing list?"

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "I doubt the list will get much longer." She looked back up at the prince. "But… yes."

The Vinkun smiled and pulled Elphaba in for a gentle, friendly hug. "Great. I'll see you later, Fae."

Before Elphaba could even ask about the nickname, Fiyero had already pulled away and hurried down the hall. All Elphaba could do was watch him go, too stunned to move or speak.

As he walked, Fiyero could only think about how his relationship with Elphaba would grow, and how much he wanted it to grow.

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 **Thank you all so much for reading! Just a reminder that nominations for the Greg Awards are due to me by November 30, 2015 at noon EST. It's one of my stories, so check it out for the rules.**


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